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20 sats \ 6 replies \ @tomlaies 13h \ on: I want to work in Bitcoin, what gaps remain to be filled? bitcoin
The number one issue by far is merchant acceptance
There are many many people that could pay with Lightning but few businesses that accept Bitcoin.
There are many many people that could pay with Lightning
Yea, except 99% of these people don't pay with Lightning even though they could. I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. The average hodler spends fiat. It is infuriating.
Then, these businesses wonder why they even went to the effort to setup a Bitcoin point-of-sale. Employees forget how to use it, because they only get 1 customer per year trying to pay in Bitcoin. So, then it becomes a headache for the employees. This just creates a bad taste in everyone's mouth.
I've personally onboarded a few merchants to use Bitcoin, and this is always their experience.
I remember being at a huge Bitcoin meetup at a restaurant where the owner was a Bitcoiner running his own Lightning node to accept payment at his place. There were over 100 Bitcoiners there that night, ONLY TWO paid their tab with Bitcoin. The rest pulled out their slave-plastic to swipe.
The reason it's like this is because Bitcoiners, in general, are not angry enough about how the fiat system works. They seem to PREFER spending fiat. Even many in this forum will argue "spend the weak money first". Fuck that. I say spend and replace.
The problem with the hodler mentality is that they don't understand how it's negatively impacting Bitcoin adoption. They don't realize how much effort went into setting up a Bitcoin point-of-sale at these merchants. They don't appreciate the fact that spending dollars is supporting the dollar system. They'd rather be lazy.
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Then, these businesses wonder why they even went to the effort to setup a Bitcoin point-of-sale. Employees forget how to use it, because they only get 1 customer per year trying to pay in Bitcoin. So, then it becomes a headache for the employees.
Some places have many many payment methods. Just think of all the gas stations that accept paysafe. How often do people redeem a paysafe card/code?
The reason it's like this is because Bitcoiners, in general, are not angry enough about how the fiat system works.
The majority of Bitcoiners are here because Dollar exchange rate goes up. Sad but true.
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btw, sorry to vent my frustrations out on you. I wasn't replying directly to you in my mind. I was talking to any and all Bitcoiners.
I'm incredibly frustrated by this community's larping about bad fiat is and "bitcoin fixes this", while they continue to happily use fiat and put barely any effort into using Bitcoin for anything other than hodling. I'm literally sick about it.
It's one thing to say "we need more merchant adoption".....
But when I see business accepting Bitcoin, and Bitcoiners STILL USING FIAT at these businesses... I lose my fucking mind.
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Sure, but aren't most of those payments similar to each other whereas Bitcoin usually requires them to move to a different tablet, pull up a separate app (BTC PayServer), generate a Lightning invoice....
It's a lot more steps for an employee. Sure, they aren't hard steps, and if they did them daily they would remember. But they forget the details when they don't do it often.
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Agree with your frustrations very much. Our last big chance for merchant adoption, where we actually got quite a bit, ended because of this and because of high fees and slow confirmation times. Lightning has fixed this, but all those businesses stopped taking Bitcoin because it's didn't make sense for them to keep accepting it.
FWIW I've adopted a "Bitcoin first" policy in my personal life and business. Before I buy anything, i try to find a vendor who accepts BTC and if they are within reason price-wise, I always pick them. Every vendor I ever interact with, I always ask if they take it, and I tip them generously if they do. But it's a struggle finding vendors who take it.
Another aspect of this is the way taxation works. For many people, if they are spending Bitcoin, they are paying a significant premium on that product and a taxation headache. They bought $10 worth of BTC, it was worth $12 the next day, and now they have to pay the item price plus $2 in capital gains, and track all that. It's a nightmare on the vendor end too if they don't do instant conversion to fiat. I'm hopeful this particular problem will get fixed soonish.
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